ASUS ENGTX460 TOP Review

Introduction:

Are you looking to upgrade your system's video card? Maybe you are looking for a card that is going to give you a great graphics experience for your money and which has support for the latest features such as DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5.0. Well, you may just be in luck with the ASUS ENGTX460 TOP which is based on the GTX 460 GPU. However, ASUS has pushed the clock speeds of the core up to 775MHz and the memory up to 1000MHz. ASUS has also put a better cooler on the card for lower temperatures and increased the voltages to give it better stability. ASUS has also installed their DirectCU cooler on the card which puts the base of the cooler directly on the core to give the card extra cooling performance. I am curious to see exactly how this card is going to be able to compare to the other cards in its class.

Closer Look:

When you take a look at the packaging for the ASUS ENGTX460 TOP, you are going to see the ASUS logo printed in the top left hand corner with the slogan "Inspiring Innovation * Persistent Perfection" printed below it. There is a large image of a mythical creature on the front of the package. This creature looks to be strong and ready to fight, giving me the impression that the card is also ready for battle against the other cards. Under the ASUS logo, you are going to find "115% Speed Overclocked" letting you know that the video card is going to be overclocked right out of the box. This is always an advantage for the average consumer who does not want to get into overclocking their video cards and just want something that will work. You will find the ENGTX460 TOP logo printed above the badges that are found along the bottom of the package. The badges that you are going to find are the DirectCU, 1GB DDR5, 775MHz Overclocked, Full DirectX 11 Support and GeForce GTX 460. When you take a look at the back of the package, you are going to find an image of the card in the middle and this is going to provide you with the advantages of the TOP edition over the regular edition such as the Voltage tweak and DirectCU. You are also going to get a list of the "Powerful Features" across the top of the package and a list of Recommended System Requirements off to the right side. At the top, you are going to see NVIDIA SLI and NVIDIA 3D VISION Ready tags.

When you open up the package you are going to find an elegant looking black box with the ASUS logo printed in gold in the center. This is where everything is enclosed to keep it in place and safe during shipping. When you open up the lid, you will find smaller boxes inside to keep everything organized. The smaller box to the right is where your accessories are located and the larger box is where the documentation is found. Under the larger box is where you are going to find the card itself, wrapped up in plastic and placed in a foam bed to keep it from moving around and getting damaged while being transported.

When it comes to accessories, you are going to be getting a 2 x 4pin molex to PCI-E power adapter, a DVI to D-Sub dongle, DVI to HDMI dongle, a CD wallet, as well as the installation documentation. There were no drivers CD included in the package. This is because by the time that you purchase the card and get it to your doorstep, there will usually be updated versions of the drivers that you will have to download anyways.

Now that we know how the ASUS ENGTX460 TOP is packaged and what accessories come with it, its time to take a look at the card itself.